Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if the Minister of State for the Indo-Pacific will declare the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Bill in Hong Kong to be a breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration following its first application in the case of Ma Chun-man in March 2024.

Following a series of breaches of the Sino-British Joint Declaration by China, including the imposition of the 2020 National Security Law (NSL) under which Ma Chun Man was originally prosecuted, the then Foreign Secretary declared China to be in continuous breach of the Joint Declaration. That view has not changed. The Foreign Secretary called for the NSL to be repealed and an end to the prosecution of all individuals charged under it on 17 December. The new Safeguarding National Security Ordinance was enacted by the Hong Kong government under Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law. As The Foreign Secretary said on 19 March, its overall impact will be to further damage the rights and freedoms enjoyed in the city. It undermines Hong Kong's implementation of binding international obligations including the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We are monitoring its implementation closely, including its swift application in this case.